Second Nature (59 page)

Nella hissed at her, and Brian took a step in her direction.

Shit. I think I went a little too far.
A surge of adrenaline made her move back until she collided with something solid.

Griffin.

She knew it without looking.

Large hands came to rest on Jorie's shoulders in a way that let Griffin's parents know that Jorie was under her protection.

Jorie's heartbeat calmed. She took a deep breath and, with Griffin's reassuring presence in her back, finally said what she had wanted to say, "Actions have consequences, yes, and they affect other people's lives. Don't you think Griffin knows that better than anyone else? She had to live with the consequences of your actions every day of her life." She stared at Brian and Nella until both of them lowered their gazes. "But now she's finally stopped being a victim, stopped letting her life be dictated by what people might think. She's starting to make her own decisions... and so are you. You aren't here because Griffin is forcing you to be here. Neither am I. Leigh and Ky didn't help her because Griffin forced them to do it. You're all doing it because Griffin is family. You owe it to her to let her make her own decisions and to try and understand why she did it."

For a few long moments, there was no sound but the crackling of the fire in the fireplace.

"Oh, of course you would say that," Nella said dismissively. "After all, Griffin's crazy decision saved your life."

"Yes, it did," Jorie said without hesitation. She reached up and squeezed one of the warm hands that still rested on her shoulders. For the first time, she allowed herself to feel more than anger and betrayal when she thought about that night in her bedroom. Whatever her initial mission had involved, Griffin had taken a big risk by sparing her life, and Jorie had reached a point where she felt grateful more than anything else.

"It wasn't a crazy decision," Griffin said. "If you sit down and listen to what I have to say, you'll see that it was the best decision that I could make."

A few more moments ticked by; then Nella ambled over to an easy chair and sat down. "I'm sitting and I'm listening," she said but didn't sound as if she would listen to Griffin's explanation with an open mind. Clearly, for Nella, nothing could justify risking your life and career to save a human.

Brian remained standing but tilted his head, indicating that he was willing to listen.

The warm hands disappeared from Jorie's shoulders when Griffin gestured for Jorie to sit down too. "I think killing Jorie would have been a grave mistake," Griffin said, her gaze meeting Jorie's. "I'm not sure why or how, but there's a connection between Jorie and —"

"Oh, yeah," Nella interrupted. "I can sense that 'connection.'" She spat out the last word. "I thought you were smarter than that. Getting involved with a human..."

Griffin's face flushed, but Jorie didn't know whether it was from anger or embarrassment. Her gaze darted over to Jorie, sending her a silent apology, then slid back to her mother. "Not that kind of connection. What I mean is not just a connection between Jorie and me. Jorie has some kind of connection to all of us. I know it sounds crazy, but I really think... I think she has the potential to be a maharsi."

The word echoed through the room in the sudden silence.

Nella jumped up from the easy chair, making it crash against the wall. She looked as if Griffin had just slapped her.

Jorie understood. It was a severe insult to Nella to think that a human would have the sacred skills while her own children, descendants of the last dream seer, didn't. "Griffin," Jorie protested. Making an enemy of Nella wasn't a good idea, not over something that she wasn't sure she believed herself.

"You dishonor your grandfather's memory by even suggesting such a thing," Nella said sharply. "She is human! Human!" She made it sound like a swearword.

"She's a human who knows things about us that she couldn't have learned any other way!" Griffin shouted back. She took a breath and lowered her voice. "She's writing a book that describes most aspects of our life correctly. That's why the Saru want her dead."

Nella stubbornly shook her head. "Even if she were a dream seer — which is a ridiculous thought — without thorough training, she wouldn't get enough details to write a book from her dreams."

It was true. The details hadn't come from her dreams.

"No," Griffin said. "But her dreams would give her enough impressions, images, and feelings for her to develop some kind of instinct about us Wrasa. Then, if she does research and writes down ideas for her story, she thinks they are based simply on her imagination, pure fiction, but they are not. The things she uses in her story will feel either right or wrong to her, depending on whether they fit her dream images or not."

Jorie blinked. Was that it? Was that why she had rewritten some scenes half a dozen times just because they didn't feel right?

"And that's exactly how dream seeing works, isn't it?" Griffin asked.

"It's how it works for us Wrasa, not for humans!" Nella hissed.

"I know it turns everything we ever believed in on its head, but just consider it for a moment." Pausing, Griffin tried to get her mother to look into her eyes and see the conviction there. "If Jorie, a human, could really see us, make a connection with us in her dreams..."

The easy chair groaned as Nella sat back down with more force than necessary. "Nonsense," she said. "There are no human dream seers. If there were, don't you think we would have heard about it before? Why should she," Nella jerked her head in Jorie's direction, "be the first and only one?"

The same objections had run through Jorie's mind too.

"It's impossible," Nella said, sounding as if it was the last thing she wanted to say on the topic.

Jorie closed her eyes for a moment, then blinked them open again. The flickering firelight irritated her tired eyes and made her head pound.

"She's right, Griffin," Brian said. "You know that only Puwar ever had the gift. Not Syak, not Kasari, not Ashawe, not any other Wrasa — and certainly not a human. If she dreams about us, they're nothing more than regular dreams. Leigh told me the human had nightmares about being chased by Wrasa. It's to be expected."

"She dreamed about us long before she knew we even exist," Griffin said.

Nella waved dismissively. "Coincidence. She dreamed about the characters in her book, not about us. Or she dreamed about us after a traitor told her about our existence."

The discussion was going nowhere.

Jorie was sick of it, sick of being talked about as if she weren't present. The argument continued for a few more minutes, back and forth, back and forth, until no one knew what to say anymore. Jorie was thankful for a few moments of silence. Now that the rush of adrenaline had stopped and she was sitting down, exhaustion made her almost dizzy. Her head fell back against the couch. Darkness washed over her.

*  *  *

Griffin stopped in the middle of her argument when something softly thumped against her shoulder.

"Looks like your human dream seer was so interested in our discussion, so passionately convinced that you're right that she fell asleep on you," Nella mocked.

Ignoring her, Griffin looked down.

Jorie's dark head was resting against her shoulder. Maybe the crackling fire and the repetitive discussion had lulled her to sleep. More likely, she had just passed out from sheer exhaustion.

Griffin took a deep breath, trying not to lash out at her mother in frustration. A whiff of Jorie's scent tickled her nose, and she imagined strolling through the forest in spring. Dewy fern brushed against her bare legs, and birdsong soothed her rattled nerves. Tense muscles relaxed, and the thin line of her lips softened into a faint smile. "She's exhausted," she said, keeping her voice low as not to wake Jorie. "She hasn't really slept in more than two days." She wrapped one arm around the sleeping woman, settling Jorie's head against her more comfortably.

"We should take her back to Rhonda's," Brian said.

Coming here had been a waste of time. Griffin realized that now. She gave her father a nod, grateful that he was now looking out for Jorie too. Her worried gaze took in the dark circles around Jorie's eyes. They almost looked like bruises, making the old feeling of guilt flare again. Jorie needed to rest.

And you need some sleep too,
she told herself.
If you had been able to think straight, you would have known that coming here, trying to convince Mother that Jorie, a human, has Grandfather's skills was a really bad idea.

"Let's go," she said. She stood and prepared to lift Jorie into her arms to carry her back to the car.

"Wait," Nella said.

Griffin straightened and turned to look at her.

"If I disprove your theory, will you hand her over to the Saru and do everything necessary to get your career and your life back on track?" Nella asked.

Disproving Griffin's theory about Jorie's connection to the Wrasa meant testing Jorie's dream-seeing skills. It was exactly what Griffin wanted. Her mother was the only person left who knew enough about dream seeing to help her, and promising her whatever she wanted was the only way to get her to offer her knowledge. Bargaining and scheming like this was pretty normal for most Puwar, Griffin included.

Not this time. Jorie's life wasn't a bargaining chip. Griffin had no intention of handing Jorie over to the Saru should her theory be wrong. Sure, she could lie. She'd done it before if her job made it necessary.

This was different, though. If she lied about this one critical thing and tricked Nella into revealing her dream-seeing knowledge to a human, her mother would never forgive her. Neither would Jorie.

"No," she said firmly.

"No?" Nella repeated with a frown. Apparently, she hadn't expected that answer.

"I won't save my own life at the expense of Jorie's," Griffin answered.

Her mother's amber eyes widened in disbelief. "That's crazy, Griffin. Why are you doing this?"

"Gus has a theory about that," Brian said, stepping closer to look down at the sleeping Jorie. "He thinks our daughter is in love with the human."

What?
Griffin whirled around and glared at him. "I'm not! I'm trying to save Jorie because it's the right thing to do." Why didn't they understand that there was no personal gain involved for her? Why was it so hard to understand that a human life was worth as much as her own?

For once, Nella agreed with her daughter. "Gus is getting sentimental in his old age," she said. There had always been some hostility between Nella and Gus. "Tell him not to spread around such nonsense about Griffin. Griffin let herself be manipulated by the human because she thinks there's some kind of connection between them, but it's not love. Griffin knows better than to fall in love with a human." She sent Griffin a sharp glance, willing it to be so.

"You can't choose who you fall in love with, Nella," Brian said softly.

Look at that. The tough, old tomcat has a soft side too.
Griffin watched her parents look at each other. A hazy mix of emotions was coming off them in waves, overwhelming Griffin's already taxed olfactory system.
Are they still in love with each other after all these years, after everything that happened? Then why did they just give up and go their separate ways?
she suddenly wondered. She had always thought they resented each other, but she realized it was just her own assumption. This was the first time she had seen her parents directly interact with each other.

Finally, Nella looked away. "Fine," she said. "We'll do it your way. I'll show you that the human doesn't have any potential to be a dream seer so that you can get that crazy notion out of your head and start thinking more clearly." She jerked her head in Jorie's direction. "Wake her."

Very conscious of her parents watching her, Griffin reached out and shook Jorie's arm. She wanted to be gentler, wake her up more gradually, but she didn't want to give Brian and Nella a reason to think that Gus was right about her being in love with Jorie. While she did like Jorie, she was doing this because she was beginning to realize that killing humans was not the way to save their species. It only brought them one step closer to losing themselves. She wanted to believe that she would have done the same for any human.

When Jorie didn't stir, she shook her again.

Jorie jerked awake, almost falling off the couch.

"It's just me," Griffin murmured. She wrapped her arm around Jorie, steadying her, then removed her arm when Jorie sat up straighter.

"So, had any nice dreams?" Nella asked with a smirk.

"Oh, yes." Jorie stopped rubbing her eyes and looked directly at Nella. "I dreamed that Griffin's mother treated me with the same respect and friendliness that her daughter does. But I guess that was just a silly dream, not a prophecy, huh?"

Brian lowered his head to hide a grin.

Laughter bubbled up in Griffin. She squeezed Jorie's arm and stopped when she realized what she was doing. "She's got you there, Mother. Stop being such a bitch to Jorie."

"Your life is on the line here. There's no time for politeness." Never even looking at Griffin, Nella fixed her glance on Jorie and came closer. "Move away from her, Griffin," she ordered.

Griffin hesitated.

"I won't hurt her," Nella promised.

It was the truth. While Nella wasn't a big fan of humans, the biting scent of open hostility was absent.

Griffin moved to the end of the couch, making room for Nella to sit down next to Jorie.

Slowly, Nella lifted her hand and poked Jorie in the chest with her index finger. A smile spread over her face when Jorie didn't flinch. "You are pretty gutsy for a human," Nella said, this time managing to make it sound more like a compliment than an insult. "Let's see if you are gutsy enough to try something with me."

"Try what?" Jorie asked. Apprehension wafted up from her.

"Close your eyes," Nella said instead of answering.

Jorie hesitated. Her gaze strayed toward Griffin, and when Griffin gave her an encouraging nod, she finally closed her eyes.